Fabian Gleitsmann heads to Chile and Argentina in the footsteps of the 2016 Enduro World Series. Once recovered from some epic hangovers, they uncover the fantastic trails on offer in this part of the world, while trying to figure out why anyone would put an egg in a national drink.

One part lemon juice, one part sugar syrup and three parts Pisco. Add an egg white, shake and you get a Pisco Sour, Chile’s national drink. It may be incredibly tasty, but not without its side effects, as we learn during our first evening in Santiago.

Yesterday, everything was looking entirely different: wearing thick winter coats, we were standing at Munich Airport, trying to convince the lady at the check-in that the costs for bike transport should already be included in our ticket price – without any luck, unfortunately. At least, however, we manage to negotiate for the seats at the emergency exit…

Sixteen hours of flight and a 30°C shift later, we touch down in Santiago, the capital city of Chile. Situated 500m above sea level and within close proximity of the enormous 6000m high peaks of the Andes, Santiago is one of South America’s top spots for mountain biking – but for us, it’s only the start to a three-week road trip.

With a little Pisco-induced delay, we start our first ride the next morning. Our destination: Cerro San Cristobal, a small bump 300m above downtown Santiago and a popular viewpoint. To make the climb a little easier, an endless road, seemingly without any inclination, leads to the summit. The road is not the only way; there’s a funicular taking people up, as well as a gondola! If you don’t want to, there’s absolutely no need to do any kind of exercise to make it to the summit.

Not surprisingly, the summit is full of tourists, and we quickly hit the trails after a long glance at the impressive mountain panorama. A number of official trails lead the way back down to Santiago, all good fun and well maintained. This was all a good start, but Chile still had much more to offer.

Bowie's In Space

Meet Bowie: our transport for the next few weeks. Only 30.000 km old, but without all the comforts of a modern car: no central locking, no air conditioning, no radio. But: a cooking area, a bed, and enough space for all our gear. And on the outside: David Bowie. Ziggy Stardust, Rebel Rebel, Heroes – our van shows the greatest hits of David Bowie, and we are looking for the best hits that Chile has to offer for mountain bikers.

120 km/h is the speed limit on Chile’s highways, and it’s also the speed limit of Bowie, and so we take our time cruising south. We leave the desert-like area around Santiago behind, driving through hills that make us feel like we’re cruising through Tuscany. We continue on through endless forests until we arrive in Valdivia. Not far from here German emigrants started brewing beer 150 years ago, making us feel right at home. The next morning, we move on to our first real biking destination: Corral.

The rain is drizzling as we take the ferry to cross over to the little village where the time has seemingly stood still for years. We set up camp right next to the ocean, get the bikes ready and off we go! Spending most of our time riding in the Alps, a start at sea level is something special. But even more special are the hills, only a few hundred meters high, and with no point of reference as we cycle upwards.

Fortunately, the Enduro World Series kicked off the 2016 season here just a couple of months ago. The result: no shortage of trails, and due to GPS-tracks, those are also easy to find. Relying only on a map. However, there’s no chance of discovering those trails. Following random tire tracks? Fatal. We don’t meet any bikers, and overall it’s hard to believe that just a couple of months ago, hundreds of racers were on the hunt for seconds. The coastal forest is regaining its territory; trails that are not used and maintained regularly become overgrown instantly.

Rain Plus Forest

After a couple of days on the coast, our trip takes us further south. We get excited by the roughness of the northern Carretera Austral: 100 kilometres of gravel road is just not something that we can find at home. Narrow bridges, deep holes and Chilean pickups that pass us at what feels like supersonic speed make the trip seem endless and we’re glad to manoeuvre Bowie over the whole distance without any mechanicals.

Our attempt at a little bike trip ends quickly, as we discover the definition of “Rainforest”: rain plus forest. So much rain that within a minute we’re wet to the bones, and such thick forest that we haven’t progressed one inch. We’re more lucky in Pucon, at least concerning the riding: local bikers have built countless fantastic trails on the flanks of the Villarrica volcano, but good luck finding them without a guide or at least a GPS.

The rain, however, is still on our tails, and we learn one more thing about the weather in Chile: sunshine is an unmistakable sign that it’s going to pour like buckets within 15 minutes.

Border Crossing

It’s time to cross over to the other side of the Andes; we’re heading to Bariloche. After some difficulties getting out of Chile and into Argentina (Which documents do I have to sign? Which stamp do I get where? Am I in the right line? Does anybody understand what I’m saying?), things quickly change.

The rain stops, the forest disappears, and soon we find ourselves in a steppe-like terrain. In winter, Bariloche is one of South America’s most popular skiing resorts, in summer it’s a well-known destination for hikers and bikers. There are a bunch of official trails, and during a very short two weeks, bikers can even use the lifts for getting to the top.

Naturally, we arrive just a couple of days before those two weeks and need to tackle the climb on our bikes… The trails themselves are in perfect condition. However, we don’t meet any other riders. During the EWS-race, Bariloche was (in)famous for the deep dust on the trails, and we get our fair share of it. A strange feeling at first, but overall great fun and addictive once we get used to it, as long as you are out in front!

We’re impressed by the length of the trails, especially in relation to the limited amount of vert, braking is not required, we just cruise down, make use of the berms and can’t get the grin out of our faces. Speaking of the grin on our faces: Argentinean steaks. At first, we couldn’t believe it, but what we found on our plates really exceeded all expectations not just in terms of quality, but also quantity. A dream, just not for the vegetarians.

Next stop: San Martin de Los Andes. A spot that we didn’t have on our list, but the advice of friends and locals convinced us to make the trip. We’re again closer to the Andes, which also shows in the weather: the mountains around us are all hidden in clouds. However, we still cruise across dry and dusty trails. We ride some laps with Maxi, the bike park’s manager. Maxi shows us the best lines in his park and is always curious, how the park compares to bike parks in the Alps, how we like it. And yes, we do! Very much! The trails make perfect use of the terrain; there are fun wooden obstacles, the soil is soft and loamy. Fantastic!

Surfing Dust

Back in Chile, even though we’re already on our way back to Santiago, there’s one thing that we mustn’t leave out: Nevados de Chillan. A skiing resort, five hours south of Santiago in the midst of an active volcanic landscape. The lifts are open for bikers in summer, and we see tonnes of riders hitting the trails. Together with a group of bikers from Santiago, we stick to the trails of the Enduro World Series once more and are rewarded with fantastic descents. Even though not all of these trails can be accessed by lift, they’re worth every drop of sweat. We’re surfing on the deep black sand, under age-old trees, past hot sulphur springs that make us remember the volcanoes around us. It's a hiking path, but corners, slopes and obstacles just make it the perfect trail for bikes.

After a amazing three weeks, our trip on Bowie has come to an end. Why Chile? There are longer trails, higher mountains, bigger bike parks. But if you travel the world with open eyes, are open to adventure, you’ll see: that’s only one-half of the story. Because in Chile, everything seems familiar, but still is somehow different: roads are only marked as roads on maps, in reality, they’re gravel roads of the worst kind. People speak Spanish, but you don’t understand a word. And stress? Nobody’s even aware of that, except when the bike races come to town!

By Fabian Gleitsmann

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